Objective: To evaluate the incidence of unexpected histologic findings in routine tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy specimens.
Methods: A retrospective medical record review was performed at a tertiary care children's hospital. The pathology records of 2062 children who underwent tonsil or adenoid surgery were analyzed and the final histologic diagnosis was recorded.
Results: Four unexpected histologic findings were found on routine tonsil and adenoid specimens. None were clinically significant. A review of the literature shows a very low rate (0.015%) of unexpected clinically significant diagnoses in pediatric adenotonsillectomy specimens.
Conclusions: Given rarity of unexpected clinically significant diagnoses in pediatric adenotonsillectomy specimens, the cost and effort of analyzing each specimen histologically is difficult to justify.